Where your reviews, library, and annotations are publicly displayed

The Quick Answer

When you add reviews, ratings, notes, or labels to a book - or when you add a book to a public bookshelf in your my Library page - that information will be publicly displayed on Google Books. A book you add to a My Library bookshelf that you marked private will not be publicly displayed (although the reviews and ratings added to that book will still be publicly displayed).

To help you keep track of your favorite books and share these "finds" with others, Google Books allows you to rate, review, label and organize all the books on our site. Please visit the My Library getting started guide to see some sample libraries and to find out how to use these features on Google Books.

You can also edit ratings, reviews, labels and library collections through third-party sites that use the Google Books APIs. In this way, you can interact with books even when you're not on books.google.com.

No matter where you use these features, the information you submit will be displayed publicly. Your reviews or ratings may, for example, be displayed on that book's 'About this book' page. Once you've added books to your "My Library" collection, that list will be publicly accessible on Google Books (except, as noted, for bookshelves that you have marked private). This lets you share the URL with your friends and family, and it allows other users to discover your collection through Google Books.

Please note that your private email address and contact information will never be displayed publicly, unless you have chosen to make these public.